Helicopter crash: Leicester City's Thai owner believed to be on board
Leicester City owner among 5 who were on board helicopter which crashed outside football stadium
LEICESTER Leicester City Football Club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was among five people who were in a helicopter which crashed in a ball of flames after a Premier League match on Saturday, a source close to the club said.
Also on board were one of Mr Vichai's two daughters, two pilots and a fifth person whose identity was not immediately known, the source said yesterday.
There were no confirmed details on whether anyone on board survived, the source said.
Thai tycoon Vichai, a father of four and the founder of duty-free giant King Power International, is a huge favourite with fans after he bought the unfancied side from central England in 2010 and they went on to stun the football world by winning the Premier League title in 2016.
In Thailand, officials at King Power said they could not yet comment on the crash or say whether Mr Vichai had been aboard when it spiralled out of control and crashed around an hour after the game. The club has not commented on that publicly.
The helicopter crashed just yards from the pitch in the club's car park. Team manager Claude Puel was not on the helicopter, the source said.
According to witnesses, the helicopter just cleared the top of the stadium before it started to spin. It then plummeted to the ground and burst into flames.
Mr John Butcher, who was near the stadium at the time of the crash, told the BBC his nephew saw the helicopter spiral out of control apparently due to a faulty rear propeller.
"It dropped like a stone... Luckily it did spiral for a little while and everybody sort of ran, sort of scattered."
Fans were seen laying down football scarves and shirts outside Leicester City's King Power stadium yesterday. "I was really upset, I can't get to sleep over it," Mr Kanti Patel, a Leicester City fan, told AFP as emergency workers pored over the crash site."It means a lot to me, he did a lot for the club."
Another fan, Mr Tom Lievers, arrived with a "Champions" scarf to pay tribute to Mr Vichai.
"To be honest I don't know what to say but I can't get over it.
"Well you know where we were when he bought the club - we were absolutely nowhere. So I brought down my 'Champions' scarf because he made us champions."
Polo-loving Mr Vichai, 61, endeared himself forever to Leicester fans when the unfashionable club broke the grip of England's giants to win the Premier League in 2016 - the first top-flight title in their history.
The title win, against overwhelming odds, put the city on the global sporting map and brought glory to generations of long-suffering fans.
Leicester have been unable to reach the same heights since, finishing 12th in the following season and ninth in 2017-18. - REUTERS, AFP
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